NYTimes

When it comes to young voters, liberal politicians are victims of their culture-war success. They have pressed a laissez-faire posture in moral and private matters, and have won. But millennials have adopted not the posture of their liberal elders that fostered group identity (be it “union member,” “disenfranchised minority” or “F.D.R. Democrat”), but a soft libertarianism that makes individual preference king.

That pose carries over to politics and blunts lasting commitments to any political organization. Indeed, another finding of youth surveys is mistrust of institutions of any kind, including political parties. Once social conservatism was defeated, the set allegiance to Democratic campaigns was bound to erode.